This Thing Inside Of Me (It Screams The Loudest Sound)
by A Whisper Of Grace
Summary: Heroes AU. Her blood was pounding in her ears, muffling everything except for the crackling of the fire, the whoosh as the window broke, letting in more air to feed it. She wasn't sure if she could still hear screaming or whether it was just in her head, but either way, she knew that it couldn't be her problem. Oneshot.


**AN: I've spent the last few days rewatching Heroes. Something like this was bound to happen eventually. I couldn't pick an exact character combination to write CS into so I made up my own, although Emma has a little bit of Niki.**

Her blood was pounding in her ears, muffling everything except for the crackling of the fire, the whoosh as the window broke, letting in more air to feed it. She wasn't sure if she could still hear screaming or whether it was just in her head, but either way, she knew that it couldn't be her problem.

Emma had to get out of there.

It was the smoke, not the fire, that was the problem. The flames and the heat did nothing to her skin - not when she was standing in it, nor when she was creating it with a snap of her fingers - but her throat was getting raw from breathing in the smoke, and she was starting to feel lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. She should have left minutes ago, but there was no way that she was letting anybody get hurt that didn't deserve it, not when it had been her that had sparked the fire.

They'd blackmailed her, separated her from her family. Tried to take her son from her. And when she'd come with their money, they'd laughed at her. Thirty thousand dollars? No, they didn't just want what she'd borrowed, they'd wanted interest, and when she said that she didn't have the extra twenty grand -

Well, they'd learned the hard way just what happened when she was pushed.

Everyone in the room had been enveloped in fire, the entire back half of the restaurant destroyed. She'd helped a few injured stragglers toward the exit, tearing off her blouse and using it to cover her mouth, but when she heard sirens she knew that it was time for her to leave.

She'd taken two steps toward the exit when the second explosion hit.

When Emma opened her eyes, it took her a moment to realise what had happened. Something in the kitchen, perhaps, since part of that wall was now gone. There didn't seem to be any movement in the dining room except for the flames, which were growing ever larger. Blinking quickly, she pushed herself up on her elbows, her teeth sinking into her lower lip when pain flashed up her side.

A slither of wood, about an inch thick at the impact point, was sticking out of her right side. Part of a shattered chair leg, by the shape of it at the end, but knowing that didn't make anything easier. Throwing her head back, Emma groaned aloud in frustration. _I don't have time for this._

She was pretty sure that leaving it in would be the best thing, but she also couldn't be wandering around the city with a chuck of wood in her side. Tearing the new hole in her tank top to make it bigger and expose the skin around the wound, she closed her hand deliberately around the wood, finding her crumpled up blouse with her other hand and holding it ready. Taking a deep breath in, she didn't give herself time to think - pulling the wood out sharply, she flung it into the fire, quickly pressing the blouse against the wound as hard as she could.

 _Fuck_ , she thought, but made herself keep breathing. Gritting her teeth, she rolled over to carefully manoeuvre herself to her feet, and ran.

She knew that there would be a crowd at the front - and could hear the shouts of the fire department there too - so she made for the side door that she'd sighted when she'd first arrived, heedless of the fire that she had to walk through to get there.

 _What I wouldn't give for a bit of Mal's regeneration right now._

There exit wasn't as clear as she'd hoped, however. She felt eyes on her as she stumbled out onto the street, and then there was a hand on her arm, pulling her up short. 'Hey, are you okay?'

Genuine concern, but it didn't matter - she had to get as far away from that building as she could, and fast. 'Fine,' she said, pulling her arm out of the man's grasp without looking at him. 'I'm fine.' She kept walking, pressing her hand harder against her side, trying to hide the sight of the blood with her other arm but she knew it was pointless, knew she was likely black from the smoke, but it would all be fine if she could just _get out of here._

'Are you sure you're -'

'She came out of the restaurant -'

'Hey, someone stop her!'

 _Crap._

She couldn't catch her breath, couldn't even take a step without her side crying out in pain but she ran anyway, pushed through the pain and the fear, quickly clearing the crowd of people who would have seen her leave the restaurant. And that was better, people eyeing the blood on her shirt was better than people staring at the people running from a crime scene, but she could hear heavy footsteps behind her and damn it, she couldn't run anymore, she couldn't -

A arm slipped around her waist at the same time as a hand closed over her mouth, and she was being pulled off of the main road into an alley. Her first reaction was to scream but she didn't have the breath, and when she tried to kick out at her assailant her whole side cried out in protest.

He pushed her back against the side of the building at the start of the alleyway, his hand still over her mouth and his body pressing her into the wall, his face too close to hers to see properly. 'Bloody hell lass, will you stop struggling? I'm here to _help_ you.'

Help her? Like Gold and his men had offered to help her? _I don't think so._ Putting her weight on her right leg and ignoring the pain that shot through her, she readied herself to jerk her knee up into his groin.

Before she could, though, she caught movement in her periphery from the main road, and when she looked up it was to find two of Gold's men peering into the alleyway. She stiffened against the wall, and felt her captor's hand tighten over her mouth. 'Shh,' he whispered slowly, dipping his head so that his lips brushed her ear just slightly.

The men paused, and it was only when one of them looked straight at her without reaction that she realised that they couldn't see her. Her chest was still screaming from a lack of oxygen, and she did her best to take long breaths in through her nose as quietly as she could. Reaching up, she wrapped her fingers around his and pulled his hand away from her mouth. 'They can't see us?' she breathed.

He shook his head slowly but didn't answer verbally, nor did he move away from her, and suddenly she was very aware of how closely he was pressed against her.

The moment that Gold's men turned and moved out of sight, her companion eased back, giving her space to breathe but not stepping back far enough that he couldn't have stopped her if she'd tried to run. Not that she could have gotten far, but she wasn't about to let him realise that if he didn't know already. 'Why are they after you?' he asked, his voice intense and serious, and she turned to look at him properly for the first time.

Tall, dark haired, a little scruffy. Those blue eyes and accent would be trouble, and it certainly wasn't the kind of trouble that she wanted to get herself involved in. 'I set a building on fire,' she said dismissively, watching him warily. 'Why did you help me?'

He didn't react visibly to her answer, which surprised her considering that everyone in the surrounding blocks must have realised that something was on fire. Instead he shrugged, nodding over his shoulder in the direction that her followers had gone. 'I've had my share of encounters with Robert Gold and his henchmen,' he said, his jaw clenching before he relaxed with visible effort. Still, he was still eyeing her with curiosity. 'Am I right to assume that by your association with Gold, and the fact that you're not in a panic about becoming invisible, that I'm not the first... person like me that you've come across?'

She didn't know what it was, but something about him was pressing her guard down, and that only made her want to hike it up higher. Even so, she knew that she wouldn't be able to go home straight away, not until things had calmed down and she could take Henry away from all of this, and as reluctant as she was to trust anybody, the person who had just saved her from Gold's men was better than nothing. If only he'd been at that meeting instead of just his envoy then she'd be rid of him for good, but apparently she had no such luck.

So, she lifted her shrug in a nonchalant half-shrug. 'I said I lit a fire. I didn't say that I used matches.' Ignoring the new considering look on his face, she gestured with her free hand to the one that was pressed against her side, her knuckles white. 'Do you have somewhere that we can go? I need to get cleaned up.'

The admiration was gone in an instant, turned to concern as he leaned down to look at her side. 'More like stitched up. Come on, I know a place.' Taking a step back, he gestured further down the alleyway with his left arm, and it was only then that she realised that there was no hand poking out of the edge of his sleeve. He held his right hand out to her, tilting his head to look at her imploringly. 'My name's Killian.'

She hesitated for a moment more, before putting her free hand in his. It was warm, and disconcertingly reassuring. 'Emma.'

Killian smiled at her, looking rather pleased with himself. 'Nice to meet you, Emma. Stay close, and no one will see you.'

 **Review?**


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